Megan Duffy and the Hokies announced the hiring of new assistant coach Darren Guensch (GENCH) on Wednesday.
Guensch comes to Blacksburg from Missouri State, where he spent the last three seasons as the Lady Bears' associate head coach.
"We couldn't be more excited to welcome Darren and his family back to the New River Valley! He has been a winner in each of his coaching stops," Duffy said in Virginia Tech's release. "His experience in recruiting, player development and game planning will impact our coaching staff and student-athletes immediately. Darren understands what it takes to build winning programs, and we look forward to him joining Hokie Nation."
He'll be pivotal in Tech's recruiting, player development, scouting and game planning. He brings 20 years of D-I experience to the Hokies with previous stops at Richmond, Bucknell, College of Charleston, UNC Greensboro, VCU and George Mason.
"I am extremely grateful to Coach Duffy for this opportunity to join her staff and the Virginia Tech family," Guensch said in the release. "The program has such a contagious energy and work ethic in and around it while competing for championships in the elite ACC and beyond. I'm excited to join this group for the journey that lies ahead. My family and I are thrilled to return to our home state and be a part of Hokie Nation!"
A Leesburg native, Guensch holds degrees from Radford and George Mason and coached at three different in-state institutions. Once an assistant coach at Loudon County High School in Northern Virginia (2005), he was the director of operations at George Mason from 2006-08 before getting into coaching at VCU under head coach Beth Cunningham.
He began as the director of basketball operations before being promoted to assistant coach, where he mentored the perimeter players. In 2008-09, he helped the Rams reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, and they made the postseason in all four of his years with the program.
Guensch spent two years at UNCG (2012-14), Charleston (2014-16) and East Carolina (16-18) as both an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. In Greenville, he had a hand in the largest turnaround in the AAC with a five-win improvement in league play, sparked by the 2017 recruiting class.
In 2018, he joined Aaron Roussell's staff at Bucknell and helped the Bison to a school record 28 wins, a Patriot League championship and an NCAA Tournament appearance. He then followed Roussell to Richmond and coached the post players from 2019-22 before reuniting with Cunningham at Missouri State in 2022.
The Hokies now have four full-time assistant coaches. Guensch joins associate head coach Itoro Coleman and assistants Sharnee Zoll-Norman and Jen Hoover.
NCAA rules were adjusted in January 2023 allowing an additional of two coaches in men's and women's basketball â up to five from the previous three. Those additional staff members may engage in coaching activities but cannot recruit off campus. Of the eight ACC programs that made the NCAA Tournament in 2024-25, two have four full-time assistants while four have five. (Notre Dame and Louisville have three apiece.)